As we all know, Tekken Tag Tournament 2: Wii U Edition will be on the shelves on the same day as Wii U launches. The game is not only a true rendition of the version found on other consoles but also has new exclusive elements, such as extra Nintendo themed character costumes and the return of Tekken Ball.

It could have been so different though, as the game’s producer Katsuhiro Harada was initially unsure about what audience the Wii U would cater for, and had originally thought about opting for a much more simplified version of a Tekken game. In an interview with Polygon, Harada spoke about how it was Nintendo that made his team think twice and make the game appeal to more hardcore gamers.

At first, we were aiming towards a simplified version of Tekken — taking a lot of elements from the arcade version and streamlining them for a casual fan base. Nintendo's reaction was that it wanted us to keep the hardcore elements that make Tekken what it is. We were quite surprised.

After that Namco Bandai set about keeping the game true to its hardcore roots, producing a title that's on the same standard as the versions found on the Xbox 360 and Playstation 3. However, some elements were added to the Wii U version that Harada thought would feel right at home on a Nintendo console, something he couldn’t do on the other systems. One such addition is Mushroom Battle Mode, where fighters battle it out with one another while an assortment of mushrooms from the Mario universe appear to make the fight more entertaining. Harada revealed that while working on this mode the penny dropped regarding the inclusion of Nintendo themed costumes.

We came up with the idea of, 'Well, if we could take the Tekken characters and dress them up more like Nintendo characters, that would make it even more funny and comical.

However there are some elements in the Wii U version that could be considered a step away from the typical hardcore fighter that the Tekken series has always been. With the GamePad offering such innovations as the ability to perform complicated moves by simply tapping the touch screen, this inevitably raises questions as to whether or not this control style is too easy.

Of course 3DS beat ‘em ups have already been utilising touch controls such as this, with the likes of Street Fighter IV: 3D Edition allowing the player to perform special moves by tapping the command on screen. However, Harada believes Tekken Tag Tournament 2 Wii U Edition is not like this, as it stops players from performing the move at any given time.

For example, you might know that the 3DS version of Street Fighter 4 has that touch option, but when you touch the button you're able to perform the move regardless of what position your character's in, regardless of how long it would take to input that command normally. However, in Tekken that's not the case ... you can only perform that technique if the circumstances would allow you to perform it normally.

Fighting purists may well see the new touch controls as cheap, but Harada doesn’t believe this is the case and went on to say, “there are actually some moves where it's better for advanced players to input the commands themselves, because it might be quicker or it might be a better version of the move”.

What do you think? Should fighting games stay away from simple touch commands or do you welcome such innovations? Let us know in the comments below.

Harada is awesome, Haters should hate elsewhere, he wanted an optional simplified control scheme (im sure he meant using touch screen on the controller) , but nintendo wanted a normal tekken , so he gave them that and he told that to the public, don't hate on the guy, he's been one of the best developers out there, and he always listens to what people want.